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My child’s foot hurts in cleats.

The beginning of every sport season, whether it be football, baseball or soccer, I see different patients in the office and I see them because they start wearing cleats because they have been wearing flip-flops or just normal shoes. Cleats in my opinion are one of the worse shoes that you can wear because they do not allow any give as well they have very minimal support because they are form-fitting to your feet. Some of my patients that have very flat feet find them very uncomfortable going from an Asics or a New Balance type of a shoe into a cleat with no support. There are some things that we can do for this. There are some orthotics that we can make or inserts that go into the shoe that can help reduce the flattening of the foot and this a lot of times is enough for kids to become more comfortable. Be aware of your children when you are having them try cleats on, both at the store and when they start playing the game or even start playing the practices. If they are not running as much or they are complaining about their feet, you should get them checked out by a podiatrist and they may even need an x-ray. Kids usually do not stop playing unless it really hurts them. So that is a reason to get that checked out. To Your Health,Dr. Donald Pelto